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Mike Signorile scorches N.C. Sen James Forrester on-air - destroys 'rationale' for the anti-gay amendment

Submitted by Pam Spaulding on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 10:06pm

Big kudos to friend-of-the-Blend Michelangelo Signorile. He somehow convinced NC Senator James Forrester, the sponsor of the job-killing, anti-LGBT amendment that we face, to go on the air with him (big, big mistake, Forrester).

The man, obsessed with homobigotry, filed an amendment bill 8 years in a row, only to watch it die in committee under Dem control in the NCGA. But now, under GOP leadership, Forrester finally he got his chance on the big stage and the measure passed without public debate, and no challenge from legal scholars. That's transparency at work.

As you might have predicted, the interview lays bare just how ignorant and lacking in facts that pro-amendment forces are, and they are led by Forrester, a retired physician who hasn't any grasp of the facts at hand, and who recently said ‘We need to reach out to them and get them to change their lifestyle back to the one we accept’.

Via Think Progress:

The senator also couldn’t explain how same-sex marriage undermined the institution and even threatened to end the interview when Signorile asked if Forrester would be introducing legislation to ban divorce. “I can’t answer all these questions you have,” he conceded:

SIGNORILE: Why don’t you ban divorce, why not?

FORRESTER: That wasn’t my intent of the legislation.

SIGNORILE: Is divorce a good thing? I’ll ask you some yes or nos, how’s that? Divorce a good thing?

FORRESTER: I think I’m going to end this conversation right now because I see you’re completely negative, on the other side, trying to set me up.

Who's setting up this jack@ss? The sad truth is that this interview shows North Carolinians are capable of someone to represent them that is 1) incapable of defending his point of view under basic questioning, and 2) is well, unintelligent beyond reason.

Alvin noted this gem as well:

Earlier this month, Forrester made the claim that gay men have shorter lifespans than heterosexuals. Signorile challenges him on this (starting at 6:11) and when push comes to shove, Forrester can't back this up. Forrester initially says that his claim came from the Centers for Disease Control, but this is not true.

There was nothing "gotcha" about the interview. Forrester was prepared for the usual softball, polite questions that he receives -- as in no follow up to challenge his "facts." There's nothing negative about asking him to justify why marriage needs additional "protection" or what is the rationale behind this amendment other than he just doesn't like TEH HOMO.

Think Progress has the audio up in two parts.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Yet, as I said, there was no public debate; and now we will have voters determine the civil rights of a minority at the polls in May 2012. It's too bad that we can only show after the NCGA vote that the bigoted emperor has no clothes.

I do hope that someone makes a full transcript of this because it will provide a motherlode of content to use as we battle this amendment.

Learn more about James Forrester:
* The Dominionist Agenda of NC State Senator James Forrester
* NC: Gaston ‘Vote the Bible’ group under fire after bigoted town hall featuring anti-gay Sen. James Forrester
* NC: State senator refuses to meet with P-FLAG, NAACP after bigot eruption

Related:
* NC NAACP’s Open Letter to North Carolinians: reject marriage amendment that narrows – not expands – civil rights
* Slur spewing pastor taking center stage in North Carolina

* The gloves are off: Equality NC slams N.C. Reps. Stam, Folwell for misleading state lawmakers and the public about impact of pro-hate amendment
* Make this viral: anti-gay pastor Johnny “two locks” Hunter on the biology of protecting marriage
* The right’s persistent obsession with sex (NC Policy Watch)
* Pastor Donald “Faggot!” Fozard and Herald-Sun columnist rail about Council’s marriage equality vote
* The institutionalized homophobia that some lawmakers in NC want to see expanded
* NC: The Truth About the Discriminatory, Job-Killing, Harmful, Family-Unfriendly, Divisive, Anti-LGBT Marriage Amendment

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Comments

Forrester doesn't know what hit him

Submitted by Pam Spaulding on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 10:15pm.

If he wants to play with the big boys, he better come up with a better game plan than this when talking to national media about his bigot amendment, but honestly, I don't think there's any rational way to defend his amendment. Signorile's audience is enormous.

--
Pam Spaulding
Durham, NC USA

Pam's House Blend
www.pamshouseblend.com

Forrester's ethical conduct being questioned by outside media

Submitted by Pam Spaulding on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 11:39am.

Has any of the NC press even tried to investigate Forrester?

From:

Scott Rose
Contributor
www.TheNewCivilRightsMovement.com
(212) 580-5328

Dear Senator Nesbitt:

I am working on an article about apparent unethical conduct on the part of North Carolina State Senator Dr. James Forrester.

Dr. Forrester has recklessly . .. and perhaps with malicous intent . . . been disseminating falsified health care information to the public.

Forrester's medical disinformation campaign is directed against homosexual persons and has an apparent intent of motivating voters to vote in favor of the constitutional amendment barring gay citizens from marriage equality.

For reference, at this next link you may access a radio interview with Dr. Forrester in which he claims that the Centers for Disease Control statistics show that homosexual persons die twenty years sooner than heterosexuals. The interviewer knew that not to be true, so challenged Forrester on the assertion (which Forrester had made countless times previously to the public). Having been caught out in his misrepresentation about CDC statistics, Dr. Forrester attempted to claim that books by a non-physician, Frank Turek, prove his points about homosexuals generally and their health in particular.
http://www.signorile.com/2011/09/nc-senator-youre-trying-to-set-me-up.html

One concern in this is that given Forrester's position of apparent authority as a licensed physician and a state senator, his repeated, inaccurate public statements concerning homosexual persons and health are exacerbating health care emergencies within the state. Safe sex programs are advanced through enlightenment and science-based public education, not through shaming, scaring and hate tactics. There is not one leader of a modern professional medical association that would approve of Dr. Forrester's gay-bashing disinformation campaigns.

On a political level, Forrester's contempt for those of his fellow citizens that happen to be gay is seen in these anti-scientific propagandistic statements he makes. If marriage law were to be determined by health statistics, then according to Dr. Forrester's logic, lesbian women should be allowed to marry and heterosexual women not, because lesbian women have a far lower occurrence of HIV infection and transmission.

Now, my questions for you are:

1) Does the North Carolina Assembly/Senate have ethics guidelines that bar members from endangering the public health by repeatedly disseminating documentably false public health information to the public? Where may I view these ethics guidelines?

2) Are you planning any public health education in North Carolina to counter the deleterious impact on public health of Dr. Forrester's hate-based gay-bashing propaganda?

3) In your opinion, do Dr. Forrester's disinformation campaigns and expressions of contempt for gay human beings' humanity block the effectiveness of public safe sex education initiatives in North Carolina?

4) If your answer to question number 3 is "Yes," are you planning to call Doctor Forrester out in public . . say, in a newspaper op-ed . . . using fact-based, scientific information from North Carolina and/or United States safe sex experts on what, realistically, does and does not work in limiting the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases?

5) To counter Dr. Forrester's irrational and anti-scientific view of human sexuality, will you help to educate the public in North Carolina about the modern medical view of homosexuality?

Many advanced thanks for your attention to this urgent matter,

Scott Rose

--
Pam Spaulding
Durham, NC USA

Pam's House Blend
www.pamshouseblend.com